Puppy Love
by ouran4eva
Summary: Set after The Reckoning. Chloe and Lauren find a stray puppy on the side of the street and decide to take him home with them. When Derek meets said puppy, he finds out that the tiny thing seems to have it in for him. Told from Derek's POV. WARNING: There are spoilers! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
1. Koda, say it with me, Ko da

**Hey everyone! I'm ouran4eva and this is my story Puppy Love! For those of you that know me, you know that my other story Kon'nichiwa eh! has been put on temporary hiatus and I said that I was beginning to write a Darkest Powers fic. Well here it is! I hope you enjoy!**

**I OWN NOTHING! Kelley Armstrong owns Darkest Powers!**

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><p>"Awww! He's so cute!" I heard Tori's high pitched coo resonate all the way from the living room and up into my upstairs bedroom.<p>

Being a werewolf, I had enhanced senses, one being able to smell what other people can't and, also, super sensitive hearing. Don't get me wrong, it comes in handy from time to time, but having super hearing can be both a blessing and a curse. Right now it was a curse seeing as how my ears were now ringing because of Tori's grating voice.

"Isn't he?" Chloe's voice trailed up the stairs after Tori's, her voice muffled by something.

A slurping noise reached my sensitive ears followed by both Tori's and Chloe's unanimous "Awww!"

Curious, I abandon my homework and trudge out of my room and into the bare hall, banging my head off the top of the doorway. Being over six-feet tall had its pros and cons; short doorways being a con and a pain in the ass and forehead alike.

Grumbling under my breath, I ducked under the doorway and stalked down the hallway, following the strange slurpy noises and Chloe's giggles; which were a very rare sound in the past few months.

About three months prior, our small group of genetically altered supernaturals had escaped the clutches of the Edison Group, the group of scientists who had done the altering to "fix" the problems that supernaturals face with their powers. A lot of good that did. All they did to us was make our powers worse. Well, worse in my mind.

Chloe's modifications had made her necromancer powers unnaturally strong—strong enough that she could summon ghosts without any outside help and could even raise the dead in her sleep. Just the thought of the hobo corpse she once raised by accident had me shuddering at the memory.

I myself was quite far off in werewolf standards. I mean, I shouldn't have been able to Change at the age of sixteen, but apparently that was a perk of being a part of the Genesis II experiment. I ended up being an early bloomer and had gotten to experience the wonderful pain of the Change early on. I'd be exaggerating if I said that it had been the time of my life. At least Chloe had been there.

Tori, though as much as it pained me to say, was powerful for a witch. On more than one occasion, her ability to cast without uttering a single word _had_ saved our butts, just don't tell her I said that or she would have a field day and I wouldn't hear the end of it.

Simon, in the Edison Group's eyes, had been a successful sorcerer experiment. His powers were very much like an internet connection, one day they were really good and he had no trouble casting, on another day they would be on the fritz and he would spend an hour trying to get a basketball to levitate an inch above his palm. If his powers were an internet connection, the computer would have probably been thrown out the window within a few seconds.

Our pack of supernaturals, including my dad and Chloe's Aunt Lauren, was now on the run—fugitives of the supernatural world—and after leaving the New York state all together, we had made our way south into Virginia. After staying in grimy motels and surviving off of take-out and vending machine food, my father had found us a place to stay in Greene County.

The city was Twin Lakes, population one-thousand-six-hundred-forty-seven, very small compared to Buffalo, and dad had rented a house in the country whose closest neighbor was a few miles away. An added bonus was the forest that was right next door—a good thing for a teenage werewolf who Changed on a weekly basis. I could just walk right outside, stroll into the forest and Change into a wolf; no concerns whatsoever that a stray neighbor would see my body contort painfully as I Changed.

But even though we haven't so much as heard an inkling of the Edison Group in the past few months, I was still on my guard. I couldn't help it. So much peace and quiet was unsettling after the weeks on the streets where you had to constantly look over your shoulder to make sure that there wasn't a rogue werewolf following close behind, or even someone pointing a tranq gun at your back, intending to bring you to the evil scientists who you were on the run from.

I was absolutely _positive_ that the Edison Group was lying low. Watching and waiting in silence. Waiting for us to put our guards down and then…_poof! _Strike when we least expected it.

"Whatcha got there?" Simon's voice punctured my inner tirade. "Oh my god! Where did you get him?"

"Aunt Lauren and I were walking back from the mall when we saw him in a box on the side of the street," Chloe explained through the slurpy noises. "We couldn't just leave the poor thing there to starve and die, so here he is."

My eyebrows crinkled in confusion. Did Chloe and Lauren bring a hobo home? It was the stupidest explanation ever, but it was all I could think of.

"When Derek sees him, he's going to freak. You do know that, right?" Simon asked.

"What Wolf-Boy doesn't know won't hurt him," Tori said. "We can just hide him for a little, easy peasy."

"Hide him? From Derek?" Chloe said incredulously. "Uh, did you forget that Derek's a werewolf? He'd be able to sniff him out as soon as he came into the living room to watch T.V."

"Well, why don't I hide him, and if Wolfie smells him, just say that Simon had a taco and is passing gas."

"Seriously?" Simon said. "I don't even think a stranger would believe that, let alone Derek."

"Well, what do you suppose we do, then, Harry Potter?" Tori snapped.

Simon was silent for a few seconds, contemplating, before he snapped his fingers when an idea came to him. "Spray some air freshener and then take him outside for awhile until Chloe can explain him. That way, Derek won't be able to smell or see him."

"Derek won't be able to smell or see who?" I rumbled, turning the corner and entering the small living room.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes when all three of them jumped about a foot in the air. It's not like I was sneaking up on them, I was just quiet when I walked—it was what felt natural to me—and I tell everyone this, but I still seem to get glared at when I supposedly "sneak up" on everyone.

Peering around the room for the source of the slurpy noises, my searching gaze landed on a wide-eyed Chloe who bristled under my gaze, quickly shoving something dark behind her back before I could catch a glimpse of the mystery object.

I raised an eyebrow, scowl in place as I crossed my arms over my chest. "Watcha got there, Chloe?"

"N-nothing," she lied, her baby blue eyes widening innocently as she shook her now-blonde-again head.

Now, if I had just met Chloe for the first time, I might have believed the lie in those seemingly innocent baby blues, but I knew better. After spending the past few months on the run, you get to know a person, especially if said person was your girlfriend. And the stutter was an obvious give away.

With one last raised eyebrow at Chloe, I inhaled deeply, nostrils flaring as I took in the scents that were floating about the room. I immediately smelled Tori's, Simon's, and Chloe's scents at the first whiff. Smelling around them, I caught a strong scent coming from behind Chloe's back.

As soon as I had smelled the scent, something started to growl and bark keenly from behind Chloe.

"Shhh," Chloe hissed behind her back, a bead of sweat forming on her forehead when she looked back at me. The something must have started squirming in her hands because Chloe started to fidget, shifting from one foot to the other.

I heard a _thunk _from behind Chloe. All of a sudden, a husky puppy with matted black and white fur and dark blue eyes darted out from behind her, yipping and barking madly as it stumbled on its short, stubby legs towards me. The puppy skidded to a halt and grabbed onto my pant leg with its teeth, growling and whipping its head from side to side.

"What the hell?" I muttered.

"Koda, no! Bad dog!" Chloe gasped.

"You named him?" I asked, scowling down at the puppy who was trying to play tug of war with my pants. I tried to gently shake him off but he held on tight, his teeth a vice.

"Well, I wasn't going to refer to him as 'puppy', now, was I?" Chloe said, bending down and detaching the still growling puppy from my leg. She patted him on the head and he immediately stopped growling. Instead, he turned his head around and started licking the hand that was petting him, eliciting an "Awww" from Chloe.

"We're _not_ keeping him," I said sternly, scowling at the puppy.

As if it understood what I was saying, the puppy turned its head at the sound of my voice and growled, baring its tiny teeth at me. Before I could stop it, a tiny growl bubbled in my chest and escaped. The puppy's tiny blue eyes widened slightly before they narrowed. He ramped his growling up a notch, his lips pulling back from his teeth as far as they could go and his tiny ears pinning back until they touched his head. Chloe gently tapped his head and he turned his attention back to her.

Confident that the puppy was distracted, Chloe opened her mouth to speak, possibly to argue, but Tori beat her to it. "Wolf-Boy, don't even start." She grabbed the puppy from Chloe's hands and held him in her own. "We _are_ keeping this puppy."

"Um, hello?" I said, pointing to myself, "Werewolf here. Dogs plus werewolves equals a big no-no if you hadn't noticed already." To get my point across, I showed her the scar on my hand that I had gotten from a killer Chihuahua last year.

"You'll just have to deal with it, then."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Since when do you like dogs, anyway?"

"Since now," she said, narrowing her eyes at me and lifting her hand. Blue sparks jumped from her fingertips. "Do I have to go all Wicked Witch to convince you?"

"You don't have to convince me because we're not keeping him and that's final."

"I warned you," Tori said before flicking her fingers, hitting me with a knockback spell.

I sailed through the air and hit the living room wall with a thud.

"Tori!" Chloe and Simon said at the same time.

"What?" Tori said. "At least I warned him."

"Oh yeah, I was _so _prepared," I said sarcastically, shaking my head to clear the spots that had appeared in my vision. Looking back, I saw a Derek-sized dent in the wall behind me.

Chloe came over to where I was sitting against the wall and checked me over despite my protests. Her hand went to the back of my head and I winced slightly when she touched a bump the size of a cantaloupe that was already starting to heal thanks to my werewolf genes.

"I'm fine," I muttered, gently pushing her hands away. I stood, brushing the dirt off my pants, glaring at Tori while doing so.

"What?" Tori said, shrugging. "I warned you."

"Yeah, well, we're still not keeping that dog."

Her dark eyes narrowed again. She was about to lift her hand and hit me with another knockback but Chloe stepped in between us.

"Tori, Derek, that's enough." She paused, looking between the two of us to make sure we didn't start going at each other again. She looked at Tori. "I think Derek's had enough knockbacks for today, Tori, put your hand down." Tori complied but she kept her narrowed eyes on me.

Chloe turned to me and touched my arm, eyes softening. "And you. Stop your growling and come with me. I need to talk to you." Grabbing my hand in hers, she dragged me into the hall with her.

I looked down at my much larger hand in hers, smiling slightly. Rewind a few months back, I was seeing the same thing, but only with Simon's hand enclosed around Chloe's instead of mine. I was still kind of in a state of shock that I had gotten Chloe and not him. I mean, he's _Simon, _ladies man extraordinaire, for crying out loud!

Halting, Chloe turned to me. "Derek—"

"We're not keeping him, Chloe," I interrupted her. "I mean it."

"Derek, he has nowhere to go," she argued, her blue eyes pleading. "Aunt Lauren and I found him in a box on the side of the street. What did you expect us to do, leave him there? He would have died."

"Someone would have found him…eventually."

"Derek." She placed her hands on her hips, giving me a look.

"What?" I looked at her.

She raised her eyebrows at me, not saying anything.

"Chloe, look," I sighed, running my fingers through my shaggy black hair. "You have to understand where I'm coming from with this. It's not like I hate the puppy, it's just that dogs and werewolves don't make a good combination when together."

"And I know that, but you have to understand where _I'm _coming from with this. That puppy doesn't have a family and—"

"What if he does?" I interrupted again. "What if his owners are out looking for him right now?"

I had her there. She stood in front of me, her mouth opening and closing like a fish, no sound coming out. Leaning back against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest, I watched and waited.

She eventually cut her fish act short when she found her words. "Don't make me out to be the bad guy, Derek."

"I'm not." I shrugged. "I'm just pointing out the facts. That puppy may or may not have a family and we could be keeping him from them."

"Fine," Chloe huffed, walking back to the living room. "We'll put posters up and try to find his owners."

"Good." The sooner that dog was out of here, the better. Tomorrow specifically.

Almost like the darn thing knew that I was thinking about him, the puppy, or should I say _Koda _since that's what his unofficial name was, came barreling down the hall as fast as his tiny puppy legs could take him, nearly tripping Chloe in his haste. He ungracefully stopped in front of me, nearly face-planting into the ground, and plopped onto his haunches, looking up at me with his big blue eyes wide and his head tilted to the side the way that puppies expertly know how to do.

"What?" I asked, eyebrows crinkling and my own head tilting to the side.

Koda yipped softly, huffing as he flew back to a standing position. His tiny nose twitched and, in a blink, he flew past me in a blur of black and white.

"Weirdo pup," I muttered under my breath, following Chloe back out to the living room.

Just as I took a step, I felt a wet sensation on the back of my leg and an acrid stench wafted up to my nose. Plugging my nose, I looked down at my leg and saw Koda standing beside me, his back leg lifted.

"Son of a—"

"Oh, and Derek," Chloe interrupted me before I could start cursing up a storm. "If nobody claims him, we're keeping him."

"Great," I mutter unenthusiastically, glaring down at Koda.

Koda placed his leg back on the floor and booked it past Chloe. Before he went into the living room, he looked over at me, a gleam in his eyes. Oh great, this pup has it in for me.


	2. World's cutest interruption

Have I ever mentioned how much I loved my alone time with Chloe? Well, I am now.

But living in a small house with six people, you don't really get a chance to have some much needed one-on-one time with your girlfriend, especially if you live with Simon and Tori, the King and Queen of Bad Timing, and Chloe's Aunt Lauren, who I was still trying to convince that I wasn't the Big Bad Wolf/sex-crazed hormonal teenager who was either going to chow down on her niece or get into her pants one of these days.

Between Simon and Tori's timing, and Lauren practically watching me like a hawk, both Chloe and I never really had a lot of alone time together due to the interruptions. But on those rare occasions when we did have alone time, like now, we definitely took advantage of the situation.

Chloe lay under me, her lips soft and warm against mine, her tiny hands probing up and down my back as my much larger ones traveled over her sides. Mindful of my strength, I lightly crushed her to me, wanting her tiny frame as close to mine as possible. Chloe's arms wrapped around my neck and brought me even closer, so close that not even a slip of paper could wedge between us.

_Yep_, I thought as Chloe's fingers started playing with the hair at the nape of my neck, making me growl softly and press my lips a little harder against hers. _Definitely love the alone time_.

I wasn't sure how she did it, but Chloe managed to flip us. She could be strong for such a tiny person. With me now lying on the bed and her on top of me, straddling my legs, she leaned down and brushed her lips across mine softly, her hair tumbling down and making a curtain around us.

Her scent wafted around my nose, driving my senses crazy. I tried to deepen the kiss but, teasingly, she pulled away, laughing slightly. Not liking the space between us, a low growl made its way up my chest and into my throat.

"Awww, poor puppy," Chloe murmured teasingly, a twinkle in her eye. She leaned down and brushed her lips against mine again, and when I deepened the kiss, she didn't pull away this time. Instead, she wrapped her arms around my neck, deepening the kiss further.

Firmly—but gently—placing my hands on her hips, I flipped us over, not breaking away from her lips for even a second. I wasn't sure how long we would have until someone interrupted us, so I planned on making our alone time last as long as I could. So, fully aware that we had a limited amount of time, I kissed Chloe senseless.

After a few minutes, Chloe broke away from my lips, gasping slightly. That didn't stop me, though. My lips wandered everywhere. Her cheeks…her forehead…her jaw. Everywhere they could attach themselves to. They wandered everywhere until finally stopping at her neck. I tentatively brushed my lips over the smooth skin of her pulse-point, both feeling and hearing her heart rate increase with the action.

Suddenly, Chloe jumped, whispering tensely, "Did you hear that?"

"Hmmm?" I hummed against her neck, making her shiver slightly. "I didn't hear anything."

"Oh." She relaxed. "Must've been my imagination."

"Mmmm," I mumbled, bringing my lips back onto hers.

I was just about to deepen the kiss when a scratchy sound assaulted my ears. Reluctantly breaking away from Chloe, I lifted my head, eyebrows crinkled and ears pricked.

"You heard it too?" Chloe asked, looking up at me.

I nodded my head, bringing a finger to my lips, motioning her to be quiet so I could hear for the scratchy noise again. When it did come again, I jumped out of the bed and tilted my head from side to side to try and hear better.

"What is it?" Chloe jumped out of the bed after me, adjusting her rumpled clothing and patting down her hair.

"I don't know," I muttered, tracking the noise down to behind the door.

"Stay here while I check," I told Chloe.

She snorted. "Since when have I ever listened to you?"

"It's always worth a shot." I smiled slightly over at her.

The scratchy noise came again, insistent, this time bringing with it a very familiar high, keening sound.

I raised an eyebrow and grabbed the door knob, opening the door while muttering, "I think I know what it is."

Koda burst through the opening in a blur of black and white fur, yipping and whining like crazy. He stopped in front of Chloe and plopped onto his haunches, tongue lolling and tiny tail waving back and forth on the floor, his brand new dog collar and tags shining in the light.

I glared down at the little monster that Chloe had officially adopted nearly four weeks ago. Just like I wanted to, the gang and I had put posters with Koda's face up all over town, but after two weeks not even one person had come and claimed the darn puppy. So we had no choice—we had to either adopt him or send him to the shelter. I opted for the shelter, but I lost that battle pretty quickly. Let's just say a binding spell and a rabid bunny corpse did a little convincing.

Now here we are with Koda officially a part of our dysfunctional family.

During the course of the past few weeks though, that puppy has made my life a living hell. Peeing in my room, chewing my sneakers, and stealing my textbooks and burying them in the yard like they were bones, but that was just the beginning.

He graduated from peeing in my room to leaving me little surprises right by my door, so now every time I walked into my room…yeah, you get the idea. He still chews my sneakers though, but now he's also sneaking into my room, managing to wiggle his way into my closet somehow, and he sheds all over my clothes. I swear to god that my clothes are going to be permanently furry while that dog is living with us. And now he's learned not to bury my textbooks in the yard anymore. Instead, he goes off into the woods and buries them out there.

Tori and Simon sure are having a grand ole time watching me and Koda go at it, especially when I come back to the house with a dirt-covered textbook. Every time they see one in my hand, they will start laughing until they either fall on the floor or I shut them up.

I swear if Chloe wasn't always in the same room when Koda was, that dog would've been gone long ago.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I glared at Koda as Chloe picked him up into her arms. He twisted his head around and started to frantically lick her face, making Chloe giggle at the usual greeting that he always gave her when he was with her.

"I…think…he has to…pee," Chloe muttered to me in between lickings. "I'm going to take him out." She stood on her tip toes and gave me a quick kiss, holding Koda at arm's length so that he wouldn't bite my face or, more importantly, my nose. Biting my face seemed to be a favorite past time of his that he seemed to enjoy rather thoroughly when he got the chance, especially when I was sleeping.

"I'll be back," Chloe whispered. She sauntered out the door and my vision with a chortling—if that was even possible for a dog—Koda, who was hefted onto her shoulder, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a doggish grin.

Blowing out a huge puff of air, I collapsed back onto the bed, my body spread-eagled as I stared up at the ceiling. _Damn that dog, _I thought, glaring at the ceiling.

Did I mention how much I loved my alone time with Chloe? Well, that had just got cut short by possibly the world's cutest interruption. Can a guy never catch a break?

Sighing, I closed my eyes, brought my hands up behind my head, and waited for Chloe to come back.

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><p>Through my sleep muddled mind, I faintly heard the bedroom door open with a soft sigh and close with a barely audible <em>click<em>. Tiny feet padded across the room towards the bed and a light weight landed beside me, causing the mattress to dip slightly. Thinking it was Chloe, I sighed, mumbled a sleepy greeting, turned my body towards hers, and brought my arms around her, burying my face in her hair. I sighed contently as I felt the warmth of her tiny body spread through mine.

A sharp pain on my nose brought my sleepy mind back into reality. Snapping my eyes open, I was greeted by the sight of snarling canine teeth latched onto my nose and dark blue eyes staring back at me. I sat up quickly, Koda flying off my face one second and booking it out the door in another.

"Fuck!" I hissed, holding onto my nose.

_Why me?_ I thought. _Why fucking me? Why couldn't it be Tori?_


	3. Birthday Suit Bananza

**Hey everyone, here's chapter 3 of Puppy Love! Sorry for the long wait, I've been writing multiple chapters for this story, so it took me a little while to finish this one. Hope you enjoy!**

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><p><em>Gone to the grocery store with everyone else. Didn't want to wake you two up. Should be back in a few! <em>_Love, Dad._

Sighing, I set the hastily written note back on the counter and rubbed my sleep deprived eyes. It was nearly noon and I was still tired. Guess that's what I get for staying out in the woods for half of the night. Scratching my head, making my already bad bed head even worse, I walked up the stairs to my bedroom, my leg muscles screaming in protest.

The night before was the full moon, and the wolf in me had burst through my skin and began terrorizing the townspeople…just kidding. Hollywood may have gotten the Changing-into-a-wolf part down pat, but turning into a wolf because of a full moon was complete and utter total crap, so was the part about terrorizing village people, and how only silver bullets could kill a werewolf. Puh-lease! If you wanted to kill a werewolf, you would need a lot more than a silver bullet.

But seriously though, the night before I had Changed into a wolf like I do every week, and I was _exhausted _with a capital E. Not to mention _sore. _Changing takes a lot out of me; once my body starts the process, it can't stop until I've fully Changed into a two hundred plus pound wolf. And it's no walk in the park either. The pain of having your bones and tissue shift into a new shape is excruciating, especially at a certain point during the Change when the pain is so bad that you think you're going to die.

When I had my first Pre-Change, I didn't really know what was happening. I mean, I knew all of the signs and everything, but I ignored the warning signals that my body had been giving me, telling myself that there was no way in hell that my body was already attempting to Change at such a young age. And to make matters worse, I just _had_ to have a Pre-Change on the night that Simon and Chloe were going to escape from Lyle House. The night couldn't get any worse at that point. Due to my Changing, I went out behind the shed to begin the grueling process.

About half-way through the ordeal, Chloe had found me and stayed with me. I had only known her for about a couple of weeks by then and there she was—a tiny, innocent blonde, staying right beside a contorting and puking me without even knowing beforehand that I was a werewolf, or that they even existed. Like my body at that moment, I think that's when my feelings for her began to change too.

Like that fateful night months ago, Chloe had come with me last night like she does every time I Change. Other than the time when she, Simon, and Tori had been taken to the Edison Group headquarters, Chloe was always there with me when I Changed. I don't think I could Change without her right there beside me.

Last night, she sat next to me, giving me words of assurance and comfort as I got onto all fours and began to Change. When the pain had stopped and I had fallen to the side in my wolf form, completely exhausted, she was still there. She had shimmied over to my head and began to run her fingers through my fur as I rested. I couldn't help but close my eyes as I remembered the feeling.

We had stayed out there for about half of the night—playing and fooling around—until my body was ready to Change back. By the time Chloe and I got back into the house, it was nearly three in the morning.

Speaking of Chloe, I stopped in front of her bedroom door, opened it slightly and peeked inside. Chloe was facing me, her strawberry blonde locks fanning across her face as she breathed in and out deeply, fast asleep. The only thing that ruined this peaceful picture was a nearly four-month-old Koda lying at her feet. When I opened the door, Koda's ears pricked and his head came up from its spot on his paws, a small growl vibrating from within his chest.

Chloe shifted slightly in her sleep, making Koda and I freeze in our tracks. Mumbling incoherently, she flipped over so that her back was facing me and she was still.

Not wanting to wake her up, I backed out of her little room and slipped into the room next to hers. Mine.

Snarling a yawn that made my jaw crack with a _pop_, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and went to get my towel for my morning shower. Since I've started Changing, it seems that Mother Nature decided to cut me some slack with the whole puberty smack-down thing.

So far my skin has been clearing up in the past few months, and my hair's been cut from its hanging-in-my-face-shagginess-style to a much better falling-in-my-eyes-but-in-a-good-kind-of-way-style, though every now and then it looked like my hair needed a good washing even though I still take two showers a day.

Speaking of showers, I was in desperate need of one. Staying in the woods in wolf form for half of the night leads to a thin layer of dirt all over your body. I could already hear the shower calling my name like in those commercials where they put up a spotlight on something and you hear the hallelujah chorus. Grabbing my towel, I left my room and went into the bathroom for a much needed soak.

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><p>Warm water ran down my body and poured into the drain, taking my soap bubbles with it. Giving my hair one final scrub, I shut the water off, pulled the shower curtain aside and—pardon the pun—shook my hair out much like a wet dog would.<p>

Water and wet hair dripping into my eyes, I closed my eyes and reached my hand out to the side, feeling along the wall until my hand came across the metal towel bar. Running my fingers over it, I came up with nothing. There was no towel.

Wiping the water from my eyes, I blearily peered at the bar and didn't see my towel. Cocking an eyebrow, my eyes scanned the room and I still didn't see my towel.

"What the—?" I muttered, getting out of the shower, still naked and dripping wet.

A low _woof _caught my attention and I froze. Turning slightly, I saw Koda standing in the doorway, a glint in his little blue eyes as he saw my eyes spot my towel that was caught between his teeth. _I knew I should've closed the door all the way, _I thought.

"Should have known," I growled, crossing my arms over my bare chest. "So we meet again, dog."

Koda cocked his head to the side and tightened his grip on my towel, challenging me.

With narrowed eyes, I walked over to Koda and held my hand out to him. "Give it," I said, putting as much command into my voice as I could.

Koda shook his black and white head and turned around, running out of the bathroom doorway as fast as his little puppy legs could take him, the large towel dragging behind him.

"Hey!" I shouted, started to run after the little towel thief just as his tail disappeared. Unfortunately for me, though, I slipped on the puddle of water that had pooled below my feet. Arms and legs flailing, I landed on the tile floor of the bathroom with a loud _smack. _Bare skin and hard tile flooring do not mix, I'll tell you that right now. "Shit!" I hissed, holding onto my side.

With my towel still held tightly between his teeth, Koda poked his head into the bathroom and winked at me before running down the hall.

"I'm going to kill that mutt," I muttered, getting onto my hands and knees.

Careful of the water, I got to my feet and looked around me. There was nothing around to dry myself off with. Thinking of nothing else, I peeked out of the door to make sure the coast was clear and slowly made my way out of the bathroom—still naked and dripping wet, I might add—and down the hallway towards my bedroom, slipping and sliding all the way while thinking of ways to kill Koda without everyone noticing that he was gone.

_Thank god everyone is out_, I thought just as I was passing Chloe's door.

"Why do you have Derek's towel, Koda?" I heard Chloe say from behind her door. "I'll have to give that back to him before he starts to wonder where it went to."

_Oh shit, _was my first thought just as the handle clicked and the door swung open.

_Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!_ I thought, turning to face Chloe, my face as red as a tomato.

Chloe stood frozen in the doorway, her eyes trained on my chest, so wide that they were almost bulging out of their sockets. Her entire face was a deep shade of scarlet, all the way from her collarbone to the roots of her hair. My towel was being clutched tightly in her hands, as if it was her only lifeline from total embarrassment.

Koda was literally rolling on the floor beside her, a strange coughing sound coming from his mouth. The little bastard was laughing at me!

"Holy shit! My eyes!" I heard someone shriek from behind me, making Chloe and I jump about a foot in the air.

Quickly grabbing the towel from Chloe's hands, I wrapped it around my waist and looked over my shoulder. At the end of the hall, Tori was running into walls due to the fact that she had her hands covering her eyes.

"Oh my frickin' god, Wolf-Boy!" Tori shouted, finally finding the stairs and sprinting down them like her life depended on it. From the bottom, she shouted, "Get a room, you two!"

Feeling my entire body on fire from blushing so badly, I took two large steps and entered my room, slamming the door shut behind me.

From behind my door, I could still hear Koda's strange coughing laugh.


	4. The Sandwich Stealer

**YO YO YIGGITY YO! GOT BACK FROM MY VACATION IN TORONTO AND I'M WRITING LIKE A MANIAC! HERE'S THE FOURTH CHAPPY OF PUPPY LOVE! ENJOY!**

**I forgot to say this in the past few chapters, so here it is:**

**I OWN NOTHING!**

* * *

><p>There's a sandwich stealer among us.<p>

Rule number one, one of the most _important _rules_—_and I mean _important—_that everybody should follow in the nonexistent _What You Should And Shouldn't Do To A Werewolf_ guidebook is to never steal a werewolf's sandwich. And if you are a poor soul that was so unfortunate to steal one, here's some advice from a werewolf himself: RUN LIKE HELL!

You see, werewolves such as myself are built rather tall and bulky, so we naturally have a really high metabolism, and we naturally eat a lot due to such a high metabolism. I myself eat food religiously and, like most teenage boys, get rather cranky when I'm hungry, so you should never mess with a hungry werewolf, especially if that hungry werewolf was in the midst of making the world's most delicious sandwich only for it to be stolen when his back was turned.

This is how it happened…

* * *

><p>"Sit!" Tori said for what seemed like the millionth time that day.<p>

Today was Puppy Training Day. Today's puppy lesson: The obvious sit command. Sounds easy enough doesn't it? You tell the pup to sit in an authoritative voice, maybe do a little pointing at the ground, and give them a treat when they actually do the trick. Well, tell Tori to do that and she'll flip out, saying, and I quote, "That's not the way!"

So just guess what Tori did? She went out and bought a whole bunch of puppy training books, scheduling every two days "Puppy Training Day" as she called it. Each training day she would bring Koda outside to the front yard and spend hours upon hours going through the training books' instructions, trying to get Koda to do the simple tricks and commands that she barked out.

Each time, he would just stare at her with a funny look on his face and blink his blue eyes up at her, cocking his black and white head from side to side until he would finally give up on trying to understand what she was saying. So he would lay down on the grass and go to sleep.

It was amusing to see Tori try to train the now five-month-old pup. I got a few chuckles out of it every time Koda lay down, which, in turn, made Tori throw her hands up in the air and scream out in frustration, and, on rare occasions, throw one of the training books in the air and set it on fire using one of the new spells that Dad had taught her.

That's why I was sitting on the porch steps right now, chin resting in my hand as I sat while watching Tori try, unsuccessfully, to train Koda to sit.

"Sit!" Tori said again, looking from the puppy training book in her hands to Koda. She shook her head when she didn't see Koda's furry butt on the grass. "Why isn't this working?" she muttered to herself, flipping to another page in the book. "'Do not get discouraged when your puppy shows no immediate sign of progress,'" she read. "Well, I've been at this for an hour already," Tori huffed. "He should be doing flips by now."

I chuckled slightly.

"Shut up, Wolf-Boy," Tori said, not looking up from the book. "I'll have _you_ trained one of these days."

"In your dreams," I said back. "You can't even get Koda to sit, and you think _you _can train _me_?"

"I can make you do flips just fine on my own." She looked up from the book for a second, blue sparks flitting across her finger tips.

"Is that a threat?" I questioned her, eyebrows quirked.

"No." She looked back at the book. "It's a promise."

I chuckled slightly but stopped when I heard the door behind me open with a groan. Tiny feet came out of the house and padded across the porch towards me. Knowing who it was immediately, I scooted over a bit to make room for Chloe who sat down beside me in the next second, leaning her head against my shoulder.

"How's puppy training going today?" she asked, looking over at Koda who was beginning to yawn in boredom.

"Like every other day," I said. "Completely unsuccessful."

"I heard that, Wolf-Boy!" Tori said, hitting me with a binding spell. "Good boy." She smirked menacingly at my still form. "Now lay down." Her fingers did a flicking motion and in the next second I was off the porch steps and laying face down on the ground, grass and dirt filling my mouth and nose. "If you shut up and stay, I might give you a treat later," Tori said, her spell wearing off of me.

"Tori!" Chloe whisper-yelled, looking around to make sure nobody had seen Tori bind spelling me. Seeing that the coast was clear, she gave Tori a look. "Is bind spelling him really necessary?" she scolded her.

"A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, Chloe," Tori said. "If bind spelling Dog-Breath here will make him shut up…" She shrugged, letting her sentence hang in the air.

I stood, brushing the dirt and grass off my clothes as I went back over to the porch steps, grumbling a word that conveniently rhymed with the word "witch" under my breath. Hearing what I said when I sat down, Chloe smacked my arm and gave me _the look_, you know, the don't-be-such-an-ass kinda look that girlfriends give their boyfriends sometimes.

"Now, where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?" Tori flipped to another page in her training book. "Ah, here we are." She looked at Koda again. "Sit!"

And so the hour went by. After a few thousand more shouts of sit with no success, Tori called it a day when Koda's eyes became half-lidded and he began to nod off, his little head swaying from side to side until Chloe gathered him up into her arms and brought him back into the house.

All in all, Koda still wasn't close to being able to sit that day, so Puppy Training Day was a complete failure like every other Puppy Training Day. I just don't understand why Tori won't give up already when she knows that she's going to come out a complete failure. I guess stubbornness runs in the family.

"I don't understand why he's not learning!" Tori whined as she plopped herself onto a couch in the living room, pointing at Koda's sleeping form on Chloe's lap.

"Maybe you're doing it wrong," Simon said from his chair as he sketched out a picture for the comic book that he and Chloe were working on.

"I am_ not_," Tori huffed. "I bought all the puppy training books that the book store had to offer, went through all the instructions with Koda, and he's still not doing anything!"

"Maybe he's too old," Chloe pointed out, petting Koda's head lightly. "I thought you had to start training your dog when they're really young. Like when they're a few weeks old."

"That only applies to what you want your dog to do," Tori said, putting her feet up on the coffee table. "I read in one of the books that police dogs and guide dogs start training when they're eight weeks old. And I was watching that new dog show—Dogs in the City—last night and the dude said that you can train a dog at whatever age."

"Maybe he just needs a better teacher," Simon mumbled, causing him to get a pillow to the face.

"Maybe you need to shut your face." Tori scowled at him, arms crossed over her chest.

Knowing what was going to come next, I got up from my spot beside Chloe before an all out magic brawl could commence—I swear, ever since Dad had told Simon and Tori that they were brother and sister, they've been at each others' throats since then and believe me, you do _not_ want to be in the middle of one of their fights when they go at it. I'll tell you right now that it is not pretty. The two of them fight worse than cats and dogs.

The last time the two of them got into a magic fight, my eyebrows had nearly gotten singed off of my face. Wanting to keep my eyebrows firmly on my face for the time being, I trudged up the stairs to my room. There was a math assignment that I had to finish and it was calling my name.

Convenient timing too because just as I got to the top of the stairs, I heard a vase break and Tori shouting to the adults, "Simon did it!"

"Shut up, Tori!" Simon yelled and I heard a thud in the next second. Guess Simon knockback spelled Tori into the wall.

Before I could go into my room, I heard Chloe come up behind me and grab my hand. I looked down at her with my eyebrows quirked.

"You wanna go for a walk?" she asked, eyebrows raised in question.

"Sure."

_I guess math can wait for a while, _I thought, leading Chloe out of the house and into the neighboring woods for a "walk" which was code for "Derek and Chloe alone time."

* * *

><p>Popping a banana into my mouth, I opened the fridge and stared at its contents, trying to decide on what to eat. My stomach growled as the scent of food wafted to my nose. Being an impatient guy, I just grabbed almost everything in the fridge until my arms were laden with food and dumped the food on the counter instead of picking everything up one at a time.<p>

"Sit!" I heard Tori shout from outside.

I looked out the window and saw Tori out in the front yard again with Koda. Today was Puppy Training Day yet again. Shaking my head slightly, I muttered under my breath, "The chick never gives up," before going back to the counter.

Peering at the mountain of food, I rubbed my chin, pondering what I should make. When my eyes spotted the bread, a single word popped into my head. Sandwich.

After about fifteen minutes and two bottles of mayo, the world's most amazing badass sandwich stood before me in all its sandwich-y—if that's even a word—glory. Just staring at it made my mouth water.

Grabbing it and taking a bite, I chewed for a while, thinking that something was missing.

"Needs more mayo," I said, setting the sandwich back down on the counter as I hunted up another bottle of mayo.

When I came back, though, my amazing badass sandwich was gone! It had vanished into thin air, leaving only a few crumbs behind.

"Die, Nazi Zombies! Die!" I heard Simon shout from the living room before a video game explosion went off.

"Simon, make your own sandwich next time!" I shouted to him.

"What, bro?" A round of bullets went off. "Die!"

I rolled my eyes and walked into the living room where Simon was sitting on the couch, Play Station controller in his hands and Call of Duty on the television screen. Grabbing a pillow from the couch, I threw it at him before walking back into the kitchen.

"What was that for, Derek?" Simon said before shouting, "No, no, no!" I heard screams coming from the TV. "I hope you're happy, Derek, because you just made me die!"

"Serves him right," I muttered, picking up two more pieces of bread to make another sandwich.

"Sit!" I heard Tori shout again.

Looking over the counter toward the window, I couldn't believe what I saw. Koda, un-trainable puppy extraordinaire, was actually sitting on the ground! Furry butt placed firmly on the grass and all.

I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing right. Yup, Koda was definitely sitting.

"Oh my god!" Tori gushed, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. "Up!"

Koda shot up to a standing position, his tongue lolling and tiny tail wagging.

"Sit!"

He sat back on his haunches as soon as Tori said the command.

"I'll be damned," I murmured, wondering how Tori got Koda to sit.

"Good boy!" Tori cooed—which is a freaky thing to see coming from her.

Reaching behind her, she brought something out and threw it in the air. Koda jumped and caught it between his teeth, tearing into it as soon as he hit the ground.

My eye twitched and my fists clenched. Koda was tearing into was my badass sandwich!

"Victoria Enright, I'm going to kill you!" I shouted.


	5. A Bonding Experience?

**I OWN NOTHING! JUST MY ADORABLE PUPPY KODA! BE JEALOUS!**

* * *

><p>"C'mon, Derek," Chloe pleaded with me, grabbing a hold of my arm and unleashing her puppy dog eyes on me with her blue eyes widened to maximum wideness and her bottom lip jutting out in a cute pout.<p>

At the very back of my mind, a little voice told me to do what she was asking. I mean, come on! Who could say no to Chloe's puppy dog eyes? Me of course, since I was the one who taught her how to do the puppy dog eyes like that in the first place.

What she was asking for was just too much, though.

So instead of giving in to her, I settled for a firm stare and said for what felt like the millionth time, "No."

"Please. Please, please, pretty please," she begged, jumping up and down on the balls of her feet with her hands clasped in front of her.

"No," I said again. "I am _not _taking Koda out for a walk, Chloe. That's final."

She fixed me with a glare that meant I'd be paying for that answer later on before she took a step back from me, placed her hands firmly on her hips, set her lips into a thin line and lifted her chin up defiantly. Her posture screamed _you better do it, or else. _

I'll admit it now. I hated having Chloe mad at me…but when she got like this, I couldn't help but find it very comical. I thought it was cute when she got angry. Really cute.

But when she got angry, I also got very anxious. Chloe and I rarely fought. We had what I like to call spirited arguments, but that wasn't the same thing. When she got angry with me, like now, my werewolf instincts would kick in and tell me to do whatever it took to make her happy again.

"Here's some friendly advice, Wolf-Boy," Tori's voice brought me out of my reverie as she was passing through the front hall to get to the kitchen. "I'd do it if I were you."

I glared at her.

She raised her hands in surrender before going into the kitchen. "Only trying to help," she called over her shoulder.

"She's right, you know," Simon called from the kitchen.

"Please tell me someone had a recording device!" Tori exclaimed. "Simon actually admitted that I was right!"

Rolling my eyes at their antics, I heaved a large sigh and looked back down at Chloe, seeing that she hadn't moved an inch.

"Derek," she began.

"I'm not taking Koda for a walk, Chloe," I said before she could say anything else.

"Yes, you are." She fixed me with a scowl that could challenge mine.

"No, I'm not." I matched her scowl with one of my own.

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Are you just going to keep this up until I give in?" I asked.

"Yep." She smiled cheekily at me.

"Fine," I sighed, holding out my hand. "Give me the damn leash. I'll take him to the park for a few minutes."

"Thank you!" Chloe shoved Koda's leash and a few of his other dog things into my hand and brought him out. "It'll be a nice bonding experience," she said, kissing me swiftly before going down the hall to work on a school project that she had to finish for tomorrow.

_A bonding experience? _I thought as I stared after Chloe's retreating figure, thinking that she had temporarily gone insane for a second or two. _Me _and _Koda?_ _Bonding? _Just the thought of it made me snort derisively. I mean, how farfetched is that idea? That dog and I couldn't even be in the same room together without shit going down.

There was no possible way in the _world—_no, there was no possible way in the _universe_—that me walking Koda was even slightly a good idea, let alone a bonding experience.

Looking down at the five-and-a-half-month-old pup who was sitting calmly on his furry butt and staring after Chloe much like I was, I thought of every possible way that this could go wrong. And trust me, when it came to Koda and I being alone together, things went downhill in a matter of minutes. Seconds even.

As if sensing that I was staring down at him, Koda looked up at me and his eyes spotted his blue leash in my hands. Confused by what he was seeing since Chloe was usually the person to take him for his walks, he tilted his head to the side then looked back in Chloe's direction, giving a small yip as if he was saying to her, "Why aren't you coming?"

When Koda saw that she wasn't coming back immediately like she usually does when he barks for her, he barked for her again and huffed when he realized that she wasn't coming anytime soon. Huffing again, he got onto his paws and walked over to the screen door, pushing it open with his head—a useful trick that Tori had taught him last week after she had finally figured out how to actually train a dog.

When Koda noticed that I didn't immediately follow behind him, he looked back at me expectantly and gave a low woof as if to say, "Are you coming, or what?"

Sighing dejectedly at the situation that I was pushed into, I went outside, grumbling out, "Maybe the doctors were right in sending Chloe to Lyle House."

"I heard that, Derek," Chloe said from the window of her room which was above the front porch.

I flinched slightly at the sound of her voice. I was definitely not on my A Game in the boyfriend department today. First, Chloe had gotten angry with me when I refused to take Koda out for a walk. I am now taking Koda for a walk. That problem is now solved. Now, I practically called Chloe crazy while she was in hearing distance, meaning that I have a new problem on my hands.

I knew one thing was for sure when I got back to the house after I was done walking Koda: I was definitely going to be in for it.

Very much aware of Chloe's eyes watching my every movement from her window, I attached Koda's leash to his collar as fast as I possibly could and hightailed it out of the yard like a bat out of hell with Koda reluctantly trailing behind me.

"You're so whipped!" I heard Simon and Tori shout to me from the house.

At that moment, looking down at Koda, who was walking beside me now, I couldn't help but think that Simon and Tori were right. Just don't tell them that, though.

* * *

><p>"No, no, no!" I said for the third time that afternoon.<p>

But like the two other times, Koda crouched low to the ground with his tail in the air. A _plop _noise sounded, causing me to groan and fish a poop bag out of my pocket.

"Damn dog," I muttered, my nose scrunching up as the smell hit my nostrils.

Someone behind me cleared their throat. Looking over my shoulder, I saw an out of shape park police officer with a scruffy beard pointing to a Dog Owners Must Pick Up Waste sign before looking pointedly at the pile of crap in front of me.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumbled, waving the poop bag for the officer to see.

Scruffy gave a nod and walked off. But not before throwing me a suspicious glance over his shoulder.

I glared at the officer's back before crouching and scooping the poop.

After throwing the poop bag in the trash, I sat on a bench and looked over at Koda accusingly, pointing a finger at him and saying, "You're just doing this on purpose."

He just sat there on his haunches, chest puffed out and looking at me with a victorious glint in his eyes, like he was proud of himself for pooping three times in the course of fifteen minutes. Seeing my accusing expression, he bared his teeth in what I would assume would be a dog's equivalent of a smile and barked out his strange coughing laugh.

"Oh, hardy har har," I said sarcastically, waving my hands in the air slightly. "You're so hilarious. Pooping three times and making me clean it up. You just crack me up, Koda."

People began to stare at me.

"What?" I growled at them, scowl firmly in place. "Haven't you seen a person talk to his dog before?"

Everyone flinched back and turned away.

"Crap," I muttered, running a hand through my hair in frustration.

I had just brought attention to myself. The number one rule while being on the run was to remain inconspicuous. Whatever you do, do not draw attention to yourself, Dad would always say. When Simon and I first began to go to school, Dad had practically branded that rule into both of our heads, and we've been following that rule ever since.

Being the overly apprehensive person that I was, I wanted to leave the park right then and there. But I knew that if I left now, I would only bring more attention to myself which is a bad thing for me because I'm so memorable. If someone from the Edison Group came around here and started to show pictures and ask questions, people would point me out almost instantaneously.

So out of everyone in the group, I was the one that had to keep a really low profile.

It sucked sometimes…but it kept us safe. Being inconspicuous allowed us to live normally in one place for a little while before we had to pack up the van again and leave for another small town where we would have to change our names and act like we weren't on the run from a group that wanted us dead. Then after a few months, we started the process all over again. Like I said before, it sucked sometimes.

Sometimes, when being on the run got the better of me, I would find myself wishing for a different life. I would wish for a normal life where I was just a regular teenager and didn't know anything about the Supernatural World. I would wish for a life where my only problems were high school and embarrassing parents…not problems like worrying whether or not I'm going to get caught by mad scientists.

Whenever I started to wish for a normal life, I would shake my head and say to myself that I didn't want or need a normal life. I liked my life just the way it was despite it being the life of a fugitive. If I had a normal life, I wouldn't have Simon and Dad…or even Chloe. I had a good life and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Looking down at Koda, I saw him looking up at me, tilting his head from side to side with a calculating look in his eyes. He got up from his spot on the grass and slowly approached me, his feet dragging behind him like he wasn't sure of what he was doing. When he was standing in front of me with that same calculating look in his eyes, he hesitantly placed his head in my lap, a low whine escaping his throat.

A little confused and a little shocked at Koda's weird behavior, I hesitantly placed my hand on his head and gave him a little pat and scratched behind his ear like Chloe does. I couldn't help but feel a little awkward while petting Koda because he had never let me before. If my hand even came close to him, he would've usually snapped at me. When I scratched at a certain spot at the base of his ear, I saw Koda's tail lift and begin to wag back and forth slowly.

A little freaked out by Koda's actions and not wanting to attract anymore unnecessary attention to myself, I dropped my hand from Koda's head and stood up, giving Koda's leash a few gentle tugs until he stood up too. I led him toward a path with a murmured, "C'mon, we'll go play fetch."

He gave me a look at that, as if to say, "Don't push it, man."

But he followed me anyway, albeit very reluctantly.


	6. Fleas are a Son of a Bitch

**I'm baaaaaaaaaack! Sorry for the long wait but I just recently turned 16 in August and I have started grade 11 back at the beginning of September so I haven't really had the chance to write in the past month except for on the weekends. But here's a long chappy for you!**

**I OWN NOTHING!**

* * *

><p>It was just a regular day when the itching feeling began.<p>

Yup, just a regular day of being on the run from the Edison Group.

We were currently staying in a cheap motel in a town called Christiansburg. A motel, you may ask? Well, here's the thing: a couple of days before, we had decided that we had long stayed our welcome in Twin Lakes—six-and-a-half-months in one single place is a long time for our little group of misfits.

So, not wanting the Edison Group to catch wind of us, we packed our belongings into the van and left in the middle of the night so that there would be no questions asked by the locals.

It was now day three of our little journey towards Newport, Tennessee, and through the course of those three days we had been constantly driving—the only times we would stop were for food, gas, bathroom breaks, and, if Dad and Lauren were too tired to drive themselves, motels.

Chloe and I were currently watching _Terminator 2: Judgment Day _in the motel room that Dad, Simon, and I shared. We were lying in my bed, my chin resting on the top of Chloe's head which was in the crook of my neck. One of her arms was around my large chest while one of my arms was around her shoulders, the tips of my fingers lazily moving up and down her spine lightly. My other arm was up behind my head, pillowing it. If the motel was on fire at that moment, I wouldn't even notice it—I was that content.

"'I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle,'" Chloe quoted Schwarzenegger with a bad Austrian accent tingeing her voice as Arnold stood naked in a biker bar, staring down at a biker with a long mullet and a scruffy beard.

I chuckled slightly at Chloe's Schwarzenegger impression and at the "Oh shit, I'm screwed" look that the biker had on his face after he tried to burn Schwarzenegger with his cigar. I could feel Chloe smiling against my neck.

"Ok, love fest's over!" Tori said as she and Simon barged into the room with a six-and-a-half-month-old Koda following closely behind them.

Koda plopped on the ground and scratched an itch on his back furiously for a few seconds before jumping on to the bed on the other side of Chloe and snuggling into her back, closing his eyes like he was about to go to sleep.

His eyes opened after a second and he dropped off the bed, his back leg coming up to scratch his ear. Chloe saw this and sat down next to him on the floor so that she could scratch his ears for him. When Chloe hit just the right spot at the base of his ears, I saw his leg starting to thump on the ground in time with her scratching.

Simon made a beeline for the pizza box that was still on the other bed from when we had dinner. I scowled at him and reminded him not to take too much because of his diabetes. He just waved a hand at me and said that I worried too much. But he did listen to me and took one slice of pizza out of the box.

Tori grabbed the TV remote from the nightstand beside me, switching the channel to _The Vampire Diaries _before she sat on the chair next to the nightstand.

I rolled my eyes at Tori and grabbed the remote from her hands, flipping the channel back to _Terminator_.

"I was watching that, Wolf-Boy!" Tori said, reaching for the remote.

"Too bad, so sad. We were in here first," I said, holding the remote out of her reach. "Why can't you just watch your show in your room?"

"Kit—" Even though Tori knew that Dad was her biological father now, she still called him by his name. I guess that she was still getting used to the idea of it all. Her dad wasn't her dad at all; _my _dad was her actual father; Simon was her half brother; and I was her adopted brother. Just thinking about it even gave _me_ a killer headache. "—and Lauren are in there talking to some realtor on the phone about the house that we're going to be renting up in Tennessee. So, being the polite and courteous person that I am," Simon and I snorted at this, which Tori _politely _flipped the bird at us and continued on with her spiel, "I came in here so I wouldn't interrupt them. Now give me the remote." She lunged for the remote again.

I held the remote out of her reach before I put it in a place where she would never dare go to try and get it back—I stuffed it into the waistband of my jeans.

Seeing this, Tori crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at me. "You win this round, Wolf-Boy," she growled, going back over to her seat, "but even you know not to underestimate me. Come round two, I_ will_ get the remote back and bind spell you and make you sit through an entire marathon of _Dora the Explorer_."

"Not _Dora the Explorer_," Simon gasped, overdramatically holding his cheeks like _The Scream. _"The horror, Derek!" He chuckled and flopped on to his bed to watch _Terminator _with us_._

All of a sudden, the remote popped back out of the waistband of my jeans and floated in the air for a moment. The channel changed back to _The Vampire Diaries_ before the remote blasted off towards Tori. I tried to make a grab for it but it swerved out of my reach and landed in Tori's lap.

Chloe snorted. "Liz is here," she laughed, smiling at the empty space beside Tori.

Liz is a Volo half-demon which means that she can move things with her mind. Hence the TV remote flying out of the waistband of my jeans. She's a friend of ours and fellow genetic experiment from Lyle House—but she never had the chance to come and escape from the group home with us.

You see, a few days after Chloe first arrived at Lyle House some shit went down and Liz ended up being "transferred." About a day after Liz was gone, Chloe had begun to see her again. Only this time Chloe was the only one that could see her.

We eventually found out that Liz had been taken to the Edison Group headquarters and had been terminated because they dubbed her as an "unsuccessful experiment."

But because Liz was a Volo half-demon, she came back as a poltergeist and was able to help us from time to time while we were on the run looking for my dad.

The last time Liz had been around was about six-and-a-half months ago when I had gotten kidnapped by the Cains, who just so happened to be my biological family—not that I knew that when I was in the midst of being kidnapped since I was drugged and unconscious for most of it; they told me afterwards when I woke up in a strange room. Not the best of feel good family reunions if I do say so myself.

Thanks to Liz and Chloe, I got out of that situation safe and sound and, thankfully, we haven't heard from the Cains since then.

Does it sound weird when I say that I never want to see them again? I mean, I know that they're my biological family and all and I should feel _something _for them, shouldn't I? But that was the thing. I _didn't _feel anything towards them besides curiosity and a little bit of confusion. It was and still is a very strange situation to think about.

"Thanks, Liz," Tori said, bringing me out of my reverie—I seem to be getting a lot of those lately—and grinning widely at the spot where her poltergeist of a best friend was.

"She says that she missed this episode, and that Derek was being a TV hogger," Chloe said, laughing along with Tori and Simon.

I scowled in Liz's general direction. I could just imagine her in her Minnie Mouse nightshirt and giraffe socks laughing her butt off at me right about now.

Her dark eyes crinkling, Tori said, "Where've you been for the past few months, Liz?"

It was silent for a few seconds as Chloe listened to Liz's explanation.

"She went back home for a few months to see how her family was doing," Chloe relayed the message. "She went over to Europe for a little after that and explored for a bit before coming back and finding me again."

The mention of Europe sparked a whole conversation between Liz and Tori—with Chloe being the translator, obviously—about shopping and the latest fashion trends and so on and so forth. I tuned it out when I heard the term 'lingerie' being brought up.

I turned my attention to the TV, watching blankly with an eyebrow quirked when a guy with freaky eyes and way too much hair gel in his hair ran up behind a girl and bit into her neck, drinking her blood. His face was screwed up in pleasure when he came up to breathe, his mouth hanging open as he took in deep breaths. You could see that his mouth was filled with blood.

_Only Tori and Liz would like a stupid show like this, _I thought with a roll of my eyes.

I turned my attention away from the ridiculous show on the TV, absentmindedly scratching an itch on my arm that I hadn't realized was _really _itchy at the moment.

* * *

><p>It was official. Koda has fleas.<p>

After seeing him scratching and biting at certain spots on his fur for the past few days, Chloe had decided to check his fur once we stopped at another motel for the night. When she checked, she saw that the skin underneath was red and inflamed and he was even losing some of his fur near his head, neck, and around his tail.

Worried, Chloe and Lauren brought him to the local veterinarian the next morning and they found out that Koda had been infested with fleas for the past few weeks or so. The vet gave Koda a good bath and showed Chloe and Lauren how to check for fleas in the future before sending them on their way with some flea medication and a bottle of flea shampoo. The vet advised them to give Koda a bath every night for the next week and told them that he should get the medication once a month.

So here we are now in another motel for the night.

Koda was freshly washed and was being towel dried by Chloe on the floor with a miserable look on his face. I don't blame him either. He had a cone around his neck to keep him from biting himself and he's been wearing it since he came back from the vet's and he has to keep wearing it until he was flea free.

I was a little sympathetic towards him, but not that much.

"There. You're all done for today," Chloe said, patting Koda on the head before coming to sit beside me on the bed.

Koda snorted and stood up, shaking his fur out and spraying us with a fine mist of water before he booked it out of the room and into the girls' room next door—we were in one of those motels where all the rooms were connected by a separating door. We got rooms that were side by side and opened the door between them. It saved us time from going out in the hall and knocking.

"I don't think he likes me all that much right now," Chloe giggled, shaking her head.

"I agree," I said, scratching at an itch on my arm.

"Derek," Chloe sighed and grabbed my arm to keep me from scratching.

"Sorry," I rumbled, bringing my hand up and scratching between my shoulder blades. "I'm just really _itchy._"

That was an understatement. I was so itchy that I was uncomfortable in my own skin at the moment like I have been for the past few days. I've tried everything to get rid of the itching feeling but nothing would work. The only thing that gave me a little relief was scratching but all that was doing was giving me a rash and making the itching worse.

Chloe looked at me with a concerned look on her face. "Are you sure you're not Changing, Derek?"

I raked a hand through my hair, scratching at my scalp. "Positive," I assured her like I've been doing for the past few days whenever she asked. "Not for another few days."

"Hmmm," she hummed with a contemplative look on her face as she tapped a finger against her chin. She cocked her head to the side and scrutinized me with raised eyebrows.

"Have you ever had the chicken pox, Derek?" she asked after a minute of examining me.

"When I was six."

"Any allergies?"

"Nope."

"Did you walk into some poison ivy the last time we were in the woods?"

"Nope."

Chloe threw her hands up in the air with a frustrated huff and flopped onto the bed. "I've got no clue what's wrong with you."

"Neither do I." I flopped down on the bed next to her, gathering her up in my arms. "It's probably just something going around. I'll be fine in a few days," I assured her, kissing her forehead.

"I don't know," Chloe mumbled, running her fingers through my hair and giving my scalp a good scratch here and there that made my eyes involuntarily close at the sensation. "You never get sick."

"I don't _usually_ get sick," I corrected her. "I may seem like Superman sometimes, but even Superman can get sick." I shrugged. "Not very often, though. But sometimes."

"But—" she began but I silenced her with a kiss.

"I'm fine," I murmured, pushing a piece of hair out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear.

She sighed and reluctantly laid her head on my chest, through with the matter for today but I knew that she would keep on being worried about me until I got better.

"Whatever you say, Superman," she mumbled into my chest.

I chuckled slightly, a small smile tugging at my lips. Grabbing the TV remote from the nightstand, I flicked the TV on and flipped through a few channels before settling on A&E where _Criminal Minds_ was playing.

* * *

><p>"Found you, Derek!" Chloe said with a laugh, grabbing a hold of my tail which was sticking out of the bush that I was currently hiding in.<p>

About two hours ago when we had first gotten ourselves checked in to the motel that we were staying in for the night, Chloe and I decided to go out and have me try to Change like we do every week. So, once we found a good spot in the small forest that was conveniently placed right beside the motel, I stripped and got onto all fours with Chloe right beside me.

After I had Changed it was play time.

We were currently playing hide and seek. Well, it should technically be called Chloe hide and Derek seek because that is mostly what we do when we play hide and seek. I don't even try to hide, really, so Chloe finds me easily. All I want to do is the seeking part.

"You're the worst hider ever," Chloe mocked, turning off the flashlight that she had brought out with her.

_Am not_, I growled, backing out of the bush and purposely bumping into her with my two-hundred-plus pound wolf body, causing her to fall on her butt. I laughed, shaking out my fur to get the twigs and leaves from the bush out of it.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you bully," Chloe laughed, getting up and pushing me aside playfully. "All you want to do is the seeking part."

I snorted and bumped her legs.

"I'm going, I'm going," she laughed, turning her flashlight on again and running off into the woods to find a good hiding spot while I sat on the ground and counted to fifty.

When I was done counting, I sat for a second, scratching an itch on my back absentmindedly as I listened for any trace of Chloe. I could immediately hear the wind sigh through the trees and a stream trickling off to the right a few meters away and a couple small animals hunkering down for the night. I couldn't hear Chloe which meant that she was in her hiding spot, trying to be as quiet as possible so that she wouldn't alert me to her presence.

Smiling internally, I crouched low to the ground before springing forward towards the spot where Chloe had left the clearing, immediately catching her scent. That was only step one, though. Step two was to actually _follow _Chloe's scent and find her.

I trotted into the woods, the wind whistling through my fur rather nicely as I stuck my nose close to the ground, following Chloe's scent trail closely as it twisted and winded through the trees and bramble.

I wasn't finding her as quickly as I usually was but that was because I stopped every few minutes to scratch myself and I almost ran into a tree once and I had to double back another time after I lost Chloe's scent when I crossed a stream but I quickly found the trail again and was on my way.

For such a tiny person, Chloe could sure move quick. But I was quicker. I was the hunter and she was my prey in this little game of hide and seek and I always won at hide and seek.

After another minute of following the scent trail, I plowed straight through a bush and ran smack dab into Chloe.

"Wow," was all she could get out before I crashed on top of her.

"Nice to see you, too, Derek," she said dazedly when I got off of her.

_Sorry_, I grunted, leaning my muzzle down to where she was laying on the ground and apologetically poking her cheek with my cold nose which caused her to giggle and swat my head away.

She sighed contently and sat up, grabbing her flashlight and flicking it on. She leaned up against the base of the nearest tree, patting the ground beside her in invitation.

I scratched my ear before going up beside her and laying my head down in her lap, my eyes closing. A contented growl made its way up my chest when Chloe began weaving her fingers in and out of my fur. If I was in my human form at that moment, I would've been smiling like an idiot. But, unfortunately, my contented feelings were interrupted by my scratching yet again.

"You seriously got to stop scratching, Derek," Chloe said when I was done and my head was in her lap again.

_I know, _I grunted.

"I mean, look," she pushed my fur away with her fingers and shone the flashlight so that I could see the skin underneath, "you're making it even worse with all the scratching that you're doing. Your skin is all red…and inflamed…" she trailed off. "…Like Koda's was…"

Chloe adjusted her grip on the flashlight and began to sift through my fur carefully. After a second of sifting, I heard her gasp in surprise and shock.

"Oh my god," she whispered, looking closely at a spot on my back.

_What? _I growled, looking up at her and getting confused by the wide eyed and shocked look on her face. _What? _I growled again.

"Derek…" she murmured, looking me in the eyes with a very serious look on her face. "You have fleas."

_Say what now?_

* * *

><p>"Oh, this is rich, Wolf-Boy!" Tori laughed hysterically, holding on to the wall to keep her from falling on the floor. That didn't stop her from pulling out her cell phone and taking a picture, though.<p>

_Shut up_, I barked at her, trying to hide my embarrassment. Thank god I was in my wolf form and I couldn't blush.

When Chloe found my fur infested with fleas, she rushed me back into the motel—much to Lauren's distaste since she thought I was dangerous in my wolf form—and quickly put me into the shower and lathered me up with Koda's flea shampoo.

When I was all washed and back in the motel room with Chloe towel drying me, my skin did feel much better but my ego took a huge blow below the belt.

"I think you look much better this way," Tori chortled, taking another picture.

_Put that away! _I growled at her, my fur puffing up.

"The cone just perfects the whole wolf look, bro," Simon snickered from his spot on his bed.

I growled at him to shut up but he just laughed again and took a picture of his own.

I hung my head in shame, the weight of the cone around my neck feeling like the weight of the world.

Chloe, who was still towel drying me, looked at me sympathetically and bent down to kiss my muzzle with a murmured, "It'll be ok."

Koda snorted from his spot beside me. He was looking at me past his own cone with a mixed look of sympathy and humor.

"I never knew werewolves could get fleas," I heard Lauren murmur to my dad.

"Neither did I," Dad said with a shrug. "Guess we know now."


	7. Pavor Nocturnus

**Oh, wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? About 6 months? Holy! Sorry for the delay, everyone! I've just been really busy with school. Grade 11 is really kicking my butt! But school is my top priority for the time being because I really want to get out of my small town...so don't expect me to update real quick after this update. I will work on Puppy Love whenever I have time, though! In the mean time, here's chapter 7! Hope you enjoy!**

**I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT KODA!**

* * *

><p>I was looking out of my window blearily, too tired to do much of anything else but watch the moon begin to rise as the sun crested over the horizon.<p>

A large sign passed by, catching my attention for just a split second. It was one of those big signs that you see on the outskirts of towns with pictures of smiling townspeople welcoming us into their town. This one was welcoming us to Newport. I guess we made it to our new—and temporary—home.

I yawned, my mouth opening wide and cracking with the effort. It had been a long day of driving and I was dying to get to the house that we were going to be staying at for the next few months, pick a random room, crash on top of a bed, and fall asleep for the next twelve hours.

Looking away from the window, I saw Simon and Tori sleeping soundly in the seats in front of me. Tori was sleeping with her face pressed against the car window, snoring loudly with her iPod blaring some stupid song called _Call Me Maybe_ that kept repeating itself over and over again—I think she put it on a loop just to annoy me. Simon was sleeping with his head on her shoulder, his mouth gaping open as he snored, though not as loud as Tori. His sketchbook was sitting in his lap, an unfinished comic sketch opened and forgotten when he'd dozed off.

I snorted when I saw a little bit of drool pooling down the side of Simon's mouth and making a beeline for Tori's shoulder.

I felt something tap the back of my head, so I turned around and saw a floating notepad and pencil in front of my face.

_What's so funny?_ Liz wrote.

I nodded towards Simon and Tori's sleeping figures, muttering lowly, "Simon's drooling on Tori."

The notepad flew over the seats to investigate before coming back in front of my face, Liz's _LOL_ written out in big letters.

I cracked a small smile and the notepad flew to the back of the car. While we were travelling on the road, Liz usually stayed in the back of the car with Koda to keep him company since he couldn't sit with Chloe anymore because he was too big to fit in her lap. When Liz first stayed back there with him, he was kind of freaked out about the floating notepad and he would hide behind the luggage with his tail between his legs. He eventually got used to it and now he would sometimes swat at the notepad. Even though Koda couldn't see Liz, he knew that she was there somehow.

I looked back and saw Koda on his back, sleeping soundly. The notepad was on the floor but I could see movement on Koda's exposed stomach. Liz was giving him a belly rub.

A soft sigh brought my attention away from Koda and Liz.

Chloe, who had been sleeping with her head pillowed in my lap for the past three hours, stirred and flipped over on to her back restlessly. She had been switching from side to side for the past hour, and, judging by the twitching that was going on underneath her eyelids, the furrow that formed between her eyebrows, and the down turn of her mouth, I was guessing that she wasn't having the best of dreams.

I didn't dare wake her, though. This was the first time in a while that I'd seen her sleep for more than a half hour. Despite it being a restless sleep, it was still sleep that she desperately needed. So, instead of waking her up, I just brought the blanket that was around her up to her chin.

Thinking deeply, I lightly traced the dark circles that were now constantly under her eyes from her lack of sleep. Over the past few months on the run, Chloe had been plagued with bad dreams—nightmares to be more exact, and really bad ones that would keep her awake all through the night.

One night a couple of weeks after escaping the Edison Group—we were renting an old farmhouse in a small town in Pennsylvania at the time—I was awake and going to get a midnight snack from the kitchen…

* * *

><p>I had passed by Chloe's room, finding that her light was still on through the crack in the door. Being the ever-curious person that I am, I peeked through the crack and saw her sitting cross-legged on her bed with a pencil in her hand, writing furiously on a pad of paper that was in her lap.<p>

"What are you still doing up, Chloe?" I had asked her groggily, causing her to jump about two feet off the bed and drop her pencil.

"G-Geez, D-Derek," she had stuttered out, clutching her pendant tightly. "You s-s-scared me."

Then she looked down at my chest and saw that I was only in my boxers. Her blush was almost instantaneous and it seemed to spread from the roots of her now completely-blonde-again hair to her neck.

"Sorry," I mumbled, going over to sit at the foot of her bed as I tried not to smirk at her reaction to my semi-nakedness.

"What are you doing up?" I asked again, fully awake then.

"W-What are you doing up?" she countered nervously, avoiding my question and my eyes.

"Touché," I grunted, "but I asked you first."

Seeing that she wasn't going to win this battle, she sighed shakily and looked down at her fingers which were anxiously playing with her blue bed spread. She looked back up and opened her mouth as if she was going to say something but she decided against it with a firm shake of her head and dropped her gaze down to her fingers again.

"Chloe," I sighed, gently grabbing her chin and lifting it so that she would meet my eyes. "What's up?"

"You'll think it's silly," she muttered.

"Try me." I let go of her chin and settled back on the bed with a grunt.

She looked down at me with her big blue eyes, silent.

I raised my eyebrows up at her challengingly, telling her silently that I wasn't going anywhere until she told me her explanation.

Sighing, she grabbed my large hand in both of her small ones and began to play with my fingers. For some odd reason, she had this weird fascination with my hands ever since we started going out. Not that I minded, though. I actually liked it when she played with my fingers; it felt nice.

"I can't sleep," she finally murmured after a second, her eyes trained on my hand.

"Well, that much is obvious," I said sarcastically, which earned a glare in my direction and a pinch to my hand. "Ok, ok, I deserved that." I wrapped my fingers around her wrist and pulled her down so that she was lying on her side next to me and I wrapped my arm around her waist.

Propping my head up with my hand, I looked at her and said, "Why can't you sleep?"

"W-Well," she started, grabbing my hand from her side and playing with my fingers again. "I-I-I've b-been h-h-having—" She stopped and took a deep breath to calm her stuttering.

"You've been what?" I began to fidget impatiently.

Taking one last deep breath, she said in one big _whoosh_ of air, "I've been having dreams about that night at the lab."

"Oh." I felt a wave of understanding flow through me. _That_ night—the night that we had escaped the Edison Group. Also the night that Chloe had used Tori's mom's body to kill Dr. Davidoff.

"I k-k-keep having d-dreams about that n-n-night almost every night since then." It was as if a dam had broken inside of her. It was all coming out in one big rush. There was no stopping it once it had started. "I keep t-thinking up ways of h-h-how that night could've gone d-differently—how I could've a-avoided k-k-k-killing Davidoff." She was starting to hyperventilate by now, gripping my hand like it was her only life-line. "My mind keeps r-replaying it o-over and over and—"

I gently tugged my hand from her grip and placed it over her mouth before she could say anymore. "Calm down."

She gave me a really frustrated look at that and I noticed, not for the first time, the dark circles that had formed underneath her eyes ever since our great escape. In that moment, I realized just how _tired_ she must have been over the past few weeks. How much sleep had she been losing because of her worrying? Probably a lot, judging by the dark circles.

"Derek," she murmured, taking my hand away from her mouth.

"Chloe, you shouldn't beat yourself up over that," I told her seriously, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"But, Derek, I _killed_ someone." She shot up from the bed and began to pace with me following closely behind her. "I literally _k-kill_—" She broke off abruptly, not able to finish her sentence as she began to hyperventilate again.

I placed my hand over her mouth again. "Breathe, Chloe."

She still continued to hyperventilate.

I admit that I was new to the whole boyfriend-comforting-his-girlfriend thing. I also admit that on the inside at that moment, I was freaking out and going around in circles in my head to try to figure out how to get Chloe to calm down. Simon was usually the person to comfort people—especially the opposite sex. Not me. Me and comforting equals a big no-no. But Simon wasn't there at the moment. I was on my own and completely out of my element. There was a little part of me that wanted to bolt from the room and drag Simon out of bed because I didn't know what to do…but I was pretty sure that idea wouldn't go over very well with the still-freaking-out Chloe.

With my mind still going in overdrive, I took my hand away from Chloe's mouth and tilted her chin up so that I could look into her tired eyes. "Chloe, you've got to calm down before you make yourself pass out." I wrapped my arms around her waist and brought her close. "Just breathe, ok?" I took in a deep breath to show her. "In and out. Easy as that."

As she continued to hyperventilate, I continued to take deep breaths. Eventually, she wrapped her small arms around my waist, rested her forehead on my naked chest, and took in a few deep, shaky breaths of her own, breathing deeply with me. After a few minutes of deep breathing, I finally felt her relax against me.

"Better?" I asked, rubbing her back slightly.

"Mmmhmm," she murmured tiredly, eyes closing for a moment as she relaxed further into my embrace.

We stayed that way for a while; just me holding onto Chloe and Chloe holding onto me. It was as simple as anything could be. I had to admit that I was getting good at this whole comforting-your-girlfriend thing. I didn't have to drag Simon out of bed which meant that I was making some progress. Progress was a good thing because now I knew what to do if Chloe began to freak out about the night at the lab again.

When Chloe's eyelids began to droop, I pulled back and picked her up bridal style, making her squeal in surprise and wrap her arms around my neck like a tourniquet. Turning around, I made my way to her bed. Pulling back the covers, I set her down underneath the sheets and, once she was situated, brought the covers up to her chin.

I was about to leave when she grabbed my wrist.

"Don't go." She looked away, blushing. But she still tugged me back. "I won't be able to sleep. I'll end up having nightmares again."

I crouched down on the floor so that I was level with her head and gave her a serious look. "Chloe, you shouldn't feel guilty about what happened at the lab. Davidoff was pointing a _gun_ at your aunt's _head_. And he wasn't about to let you or Tori go." I leaned forward and touched my forehead to hers, looking deeply into her eyes. "I know that you feel like crap about it now but you shouldn't feel that way because you did what you had to do. There was no other way."

"But I still _killed_ someone, Derek." She looked back into my eyes fiercely. "And I probably k-killed a few m-more people since I-I-I'm the one responsible for the c-collapse of the building because I r-released the demi-demon."

"Did you ever think that some of those people might've deserved it, Chloe?"

"No one deserves to die, Derek."

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Well, I don't know what else to say to you, Chloe."

"Well, then, don't say anything at all." She patted the spot on the bed next to her, her eyes big and pleading. "Just stay here for a bit. At least until I fall asleep." She grimaced slightly. "Though I don't think I'm going to be sleeping all that much tonight."

So, in the end, I had stayed with her for the rest of the night. We talked about random things to pass the time and, yes, we might've done a little bit of kissing here and there. A guy's gotta live a little.

Eventually, Chloe fell into a fitful sleep with half of her body on top of mine. Not wanting to wake her up by jostling her around, I just stayed where I was and watched her sleep. Not in a stalker-ish sort of way; more like a boyfriend-concerned-about-his-girlfriend sort of way.

After a little while of watching her, I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. I was just too warm…too comfortable. The lull of sleep eventually overtook me and I was conked out in the next second.

The next thing I remembered from that night was Chloe shaking me awake and urging me to get back to my room before anyone woke up and saw us sleeping together. I had grumbled a bit but I did as she said, not wanting her aunt to find us like that and accuse me of trying to deflower her niece. I seriously didn't want her aunt to have any more reasons to not approve of me dating Chloe. So I trudged back to my room and fell onto my bed with a loud _smack_. I was asleep again before my head hit the pillow.

* * *

><p>The car slowing down brought me out of my reverie.<p>

I brought my eyes away from the still-sleeping Chloe and looked out the window in time to see the car stop in front of a quaint little yellow house with a wraparound porch and large windows poking out through the surrounding woods. I looked out the other window and saw that the property had a nice-sized lawn with small flower beds here and there. A large oak tree sat at the edge of the property with a small bench resting at its base and a tire swing hanging from one of its branches.

I had to hand it to Dad and Lauren; they sure did pick a good one this time. It was a really nice spot for us to live at for the next few months.

The side door of the van opened up and Dad poked his head in.

"Wakie, wakie," he said as he shook Simon awake.

He didn't dare wake Tori up, though. When he tried to do that the first time we went on the road, Tori, being a very cranky person while she was half-asleep—more crankier than me when I was half-asleep—had hit him with a knockback spell that sent him flying. Ever since that happened, we would just leave her in the car with the windows rolled down a crack and let her sleep. It saved us a lot of trouble.

Simon groaned as Dad continued to shake him. "Five more minutes, Dad!"

He waved Dad's hands away from him and burrowed closer into Tori's shoulder, falling asleep again in the next second.

I chuckled slightly. Simon was lucky that he was asleep because if he consciously knew what he was doing, he wouldn't be able to live it down. I wish I had a camera with me at the moment.

Dad looked back at me with one eyebrow raised and a small smile playing on his lips.

"Should we just leave them in here until they wake up?" A very tired looking Lauren asked as she peeked behind her seat.

Dad shrugged. "They're not going to be waking up anytime soon, so we might as well. Just roll the windows down a bit for them." With that, he made his way to the back of the van, opened the trunk up and picked up his suitcase, waking a very grumpy Koda up in the process.

"We might as well just leave everything until the morning, Kit," Lauren said, hopping out of the van and stretching. "It's late and we're all tired, so there's no point in unpacking right now."

"Yeah, Dad," I agreed, carefully picking a sleeping Chloe up in my arms and getting out of the van. "We're all beat." I tried to suppress a yawn but failed miserably.

Dad nodded, slamming the trunk closed—jolting Tori and Simon into a state of half-wakefulness—before leading our tired group into the house.

I was too tired to even process what the house looked like. But from what I could tell, it was neat and tidy and fully furnished. Very homey feeling.

Dad yawned, pointing to a set of stairs that led to the second floor. "Just pick any room, you guys."

He didn't have to tell any of us twice. We all trudged up the steps, each of us wanting nothing more than to fall asleep on a nice, comfortable bed instead of a lumpy, springy motel bed.

I quickly found Chloe a nicely sized room with a view of the backyard and deposited her under the covers of her bed, careful not to wake her up with all the jostling that I was doing to her. Koda, who had been following close behind me, jumped onto the bed with her and settled himself down at his favorite sleeping spot right by her feet. He let out a huge yawn before setting his head down on his paws and closing his eyes, falling straight to sleep.

I gave him a quick pat on the head to which he woke up briefly, opening one eye and grunting before falling back to sleep, too tired to take a bite at me.

Snorting slightly, I turned my attention back to Chloe's sleeping form and got her situated in the bed, fixing her pillow and pulling the covers up to her chin.

"See you in the morning," I whispered softly, bending down and giving her a small kiss on the forehead before leaving her room and going across the hall to mine where I robotically stripped down to my boxers, flopped onto the bed, and fell straight to sleep.

* * *

><p>It seemed as though I had just closed my eyes when I heard a high pitched whining close to my ear and a sharp scratching noise.<p>

Lifting myself onto my elbows, I opened my eyes blearily and saw Koda sitting on his haunches beside my bed, his blue eyes wide and one of his paws lifted to scratch the side of the mattress again.

"Go away, Koda," I groaned sleepily, swatting my hand in his direction before falling back onto the bed and rolling over to the other side. "It's bedtime."

But he just jumped onto the bed and began pawing at me, still whining.

"Koda," I growled, pushing him off the bed and pulling the covers up and over my head. "Go back to sleep."

He barked at me once and took a swipe at me with his paw before I heard him padding away.

"Finally," I muttered, pulling my pillow over my head as the lull of sleep made my eyelids droop closed and forced a large yawn out of me.

I was almost asleep again—almost to that part of sleep where you can feel the beginnings of dream fogginess—when a low growl and a blast of cold air brought me back from unconsciousness. A guy can never catch any much needed sleep around here when he wants to, can he?

Annoyed and tired, I jolted upright into a sitting position and glared down at Koda who had my covers caught in his mouth as he tugged them off of the bed even more.

"Jesus Christ, Koda!" I growled, yanking the covers back towards me. "What the hell do you want?"

He snarled lowly, ears pinned back to his head as he tugged the covers from my grasp, dropped them to the floor, and proceeded to sit on them.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and fell back onto the bed, making the springs protest under my weight. "Koda, I'm not in the mood for any of your games tonight." I looked over at him. "Go back to Chloe's room and go to sleep."

At the sound of her name, he barked and jumped up from his position on the covers, his ears twitching madly as he listened to the sounds around him. After a second of listening, a low whine escaped from him, making his ears lower and his tail curl in between his legs.

"What is up with you tonight, Koda?" I asked, pushing my head under my pillow in the hopes that he would go away if I ignored him long enough.

Koda barked again and, as if by his command, my pillow lifted off of my head for a second before smacking me in the back three times. Sitting up, I saw my pillow floating a few feet above the bed before it hit me square in the face with a loud _smack_.

"What the fuck are you doing, Liz?" I asked when the pillow dropped from my face.

Liz's notepad floated close to me. The pen scratched across the paper quickly and in the dark I could clearly see Liz's messily handwritten _Listen!_

My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion which made me get another smack to the face by my pillow.

"Ok, ok." I waved her off, pricking my ears to listen to what Koda had heard.

That's when I heard it—a muffled scream. It was coming from across the hall.

"Chloe!" I gasped, jumping out of bed and rushing across the hall.

I momentarily saw Liz's scribbled _Finally_ followed by Koda grumbling from behind me as if to say, "Well, it's about time!"

"Shut up!" I called back to them as I pretty much ripped Chloe's door off of its hinges in my haste to get into her room.

She was in her bed, sweating profusely, hyperventilating, tossing from side to side, and muttering incomprehensibly in her sleep. As she tossed to the side again, her blanket fell to the floor, making a blast of cold air hit her sweaty skin. She shivered and curled herself into a tiny, trembling ball.

I rushed over to her. This close to her, I could hear her heart racing and I could almost make out what she was mumbling in her sleep. I caught little snippets like, "No…No…Release…Didn't mean to…Accident…"

Reaching out to her, I gently grabbed onto her shoulder and shook it slightly to try and wake her up. As soon as I touched her, she bolted upright into a sitting position and screamed, her arms and legs flailing wildly. One of her flailing fists connected with my cheek, making me grunt and curse. Ever since she started with her self-defense lessons, she had gotten a pretty good right hook.

"Chloe—" Another fist connected. "Chloe, it's me—" Another hit. "Chloe, stop!" I grabbed onto her fist just as it was about to hit me in the shoulder.

"D-Derek?" Her voice came out as a small whisper.

I looked down at her, meeting her wide and panicked gaze.

"Hey." I let go of her and sat down on the edge of her bed, sighing in relief. "You awake now?"

"Y-Yeah." She nodded. Taking in a shaky breath, she sat up and rubbed her hands over her face tiredly, trying to dispel the dream.

I reached for her hand and began to rub small circles onto the back of it with my thumb. "You ok?"

She pulled herself closer to me so that she was pressed against my side, her head resting against my shoulder and her hand still clutching onto mine. "I'll live."

I pressed my lips against the top of her head and muttered into her hair, "Do you want to talk about it?"

I felt her head shake slowly from side to side. "Not really, no." Her grip on my hand tightened slightly. "Could we just stay like this for a bit?"

I smiled into her hair and gave her temple a small kiss. "Kay."

A small whine from beside us caught our attention. Koda looked up at Chloe with concerned eyes, his ears still lowered and his tail still curled in between his legs like before.

"Hey, boy," Chloe whispered to him, holding her hand out to him. "I'm ok now."

That gave Koda enough incentive to jump up onto the bed with us and give Chloe a quick lick on the cheek before lying down with his head in her lap.

"Good dog," I said, patting him on the head—only to get bitten at.

Chloe laughed and scratched Koda behind the ears. "Same old Koda."

* * *

><p><strong>OH! I almost forgot to mention that Puppy Love is now a year old as of March 18! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PUPPY LOVE!<strong>


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